- Title: Gazans crowd around collapsed tower block hit by Israeli air strike
- Date: 11th May 2021
- Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (MAY 11, 2021) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF PALESTINIANS HOLDING FLASHLIGHTS, WALKING ON RUBBLE WHERE TOWER BUILDING COLLAPSED AFTER IT WAS HIT BY ISRAELI STRIKE DEBRIS ON GROUND / RESCUE PEOPLE WALKING BY DEBRIS ON GROUND COLLAPSED BUILDING / PEOPLE STANDING BY / COLLAPSED BUILDING MEN PICKING UP DEBRIS VARIOUS OF AMBULANCE AT SCENE VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN OFFICERS AT SCENE DEBRIS OF COLLAPSED TOWER VARIOUS OF MEN EXAMINING SITE OF COLLAPSED TOWER MEN WALKING NEAR SITE OF COLLAPSED TOWER
- Embargoed: 25th May 2021 20:14
- Keywords: Gaza Hamas Israel air strike rocket tower collapsed
- Location: GAZA CITY, GAZA
- City: GAZA CITY, GAZA
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA001ECIRVWN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Residents in Gaza crowded around the debris of a collapsed building hit by an Israeli air strike on Tuesday (May 11).
Hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group that runs Gaza escalated on Tuesday as each side attacked the other with aerial bombardments that recalled their last major conflict in 2014.
A 13-story residential block in Gaza collapsed after one of several dozen Israeli air strikes, albeit after an Israeli warning, as Israelis reported explosions and sirens more than 70 km (45 miles) up the coast from Gaza. Thirty-one people were reported dead: 28 in Gaza and three in Israel.
Late Tuesday night, Gazans reported their homes shaking and the sky lighting up with near-constant Israeli strikes. Some residents, holding torches, ventured out to the site of the collapsed tower block.
Video footage on Tuesday showed three plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the Gaza block as it toppled over. Electricity in the surrounding area went out.
Residents of the block and the surrounding area had been warned to evacuate the area around an hour before the air strike, according to witnesses, and there were no reports of casualties two hours after it collapsed.
Shortly after the attack, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group said they would respond by firing rockets at Tel Aviv.
The fighting between Israel and Gaza's armed factions was triggered by clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque on Monday (May 10).
(Production: Arfat Barbakh, Mohammad Shana, Suheir Sheikh) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
